Jutta Leerdam’s eyes shoot up at an angle for a moment, she shrugs her shoulders briefly. The NOS reporter has just presented to the brand new Dutch sprint champion that the European Championship sprint in Hamar, Norway, which started this Friday, will not be exciting due to a lack of competition for the Dutch. “We’ll see, I just have to drive well next week,” says Leerdam diplomatically, but the silence she drops for a moment before that speaks volumes.
The number 2 of the NK, Femke Kok, is more outspoken for the cameras. “Unfortunately, the Russians are not there, which is a pity for the tournament.” Does that mean that a European medal beckons for her in Norway? “Yes, I’m definitely going for that,” says Kok enthusiastically.
The reactions of the two best Dutch skaters in the short distances say a lot, if not everything, about the status of the European all-around events that will be held this weekend in the Vikingskipet take place. Not only the sprinters, but also the all-rounders will take part and it is expected that the Dutch champions Patrick Roest and Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (all-round), and Hein Otterspeer and Leerdam (sprint) have a good chance of winning the European titles.
There is hardly any competition: Russia is not participating because of the suspension for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and apart from a few Norwegian skaters, few others come close to the level of the Dutch. “The top in skating is just very narrow, that’s no secret. The European Championship is therefore a kind of glorified NK,” says reigning sprint world champion Thomas Krol, who was unable to qualify for this European Championship at the national championships. “The Dutch Championship is of a higher level than this tournament.”
Confusing World Cups
The real competition is in Asia (Japan, China) and North America (US and Canada), but the Dutch cannot compete with them in all-around championships this year. This is the result of a decision in 2018 by the international skating association ISU to hold only one World Cup per season from the 2020/2021 season, instead of the three that were organized annually until then. This year it is the turn of the World Championship distances, in March in Heerenveen, in 2024 the World Championship sprint and all-round are on the program, and so on. For the European Championships it is exactly the other way around.
Many countries found it confusing, those three World Cups per season, says Douwe de Vries, former top skater and current vice-chairman of the ISU athletes’ committee. “Other winter sports don’t have that. The problem with skating is: you don’t just add those tournaments together. If you do, you will kill sprinting and all-round racing, because then the individual distances, which have Olympic status, will always take precedence.”
So the members of the ISU, despite a dissenting vote from the Netherlands, decided on a varied World Cup. “It is a pity that we cannot compete for the world title,” says Patrick Roest, three-time world all-round champion and last year second behind the Swede Nils van der Poel. “The World Allround Championships is the oldest tournament we have in skating. Now that it is no longer held every year, you can no longer put the performance in a historical perspective.” According to Roest, both the skaters and the public are the losers of the ISU’s decision. “The European Championship has a less fun field of participants, and is therefore less interesting for spectators.” He hopes for full stands this weekend, but the matches in Hamar are far from sold out.
In Norway, too, the annually changing title tournaments are critically viewed, says Bjarne Rykkje, national coach of the Norwegian all-rounders. “Our skaters would much rather ride a World Cup than a European Championship. The World Allround Championships are very important in Norway, dating back to the time when skating was the biggest sport in this country.” According to Rykje, the need to train for all-round or mastering two sprint distances will disappear if there is not a world title fight on the program every year. “Skaters now alternately have to specialize in loose distances and all-round. That is not conducive to the level.”
Empty calendar
The abolition of the various annual European and World Championships has also led to an empty calendar. Up to and including the World Championship distances in March, Thomas Krol still has the NK distances and two World Cup competitions in Poland, all in February. Furthermore, it is easy in international competition. “I will use the next three weeks to train hard, that might be an advantage,” says Krol. “But I prefer to race. And then we have our national tournaments, selection matches and the European Championship. For countries outside Europe, there is a big gap between December and February this year.”
It’s a big contrast to roughly ten years ago, when skaters and coaches such as Ireen Wüst and Jillert Anema complained about the abundance of competitions in their eyes. “It is really absurd”, said Wüst in the 2014-’15 season about a program that successively took her to the National Championships allround, the European Championships allround, the National Championships sprint, an extra qualifying tournament and then a series of World Cups, the World Championship distances and finally the World Allround Championships. She decided to skip the Sprint World Cup that year, just as Anema chose not to send his skaters to a number of World Cup competitions.
Now the competition calendar is too empty, says athlete representative Douwe de Vries. He calls the lack of international competition harmful to skating. “In two of the winter months you hardly have any competitions as a winter sport. That is not good. You have to be visible to fans and sponsors.”
But it remains a big puzzle to fit all the matches, says De Vries. “I think it would be a good idea to hold more World Cup competitions and to give that competition more prestige. And to organize an annual global title fight for all-round and sprint in addition to the World Championship distances, which you don’t call a World Championship – if that helps to get the approval of the ISU members. I would immediately exchange that for a European Championship.”
Please abolish those European Championships as soon as possible, says Thomas Krol. “Preferably today. And don’t touch the World Cups and their history anymore, that’s bad for the image of the sport.” The Dutch are not very hopeful that their plea will have an effect. “I don’t think anything will change in the short term,” says Patrick Roest. “The only thing we can do is speak up about it, but I have a hard time believing that the ISU will do something about it. They didn’t do that in 2018 either.”
A version of this article also appeared in the January 7, 2023 newspaper